Over the past year and a half Bitcoin has been on a spectacular run, rising in value 140% in 2016 and now an additional 49% in just the past month. This surge in value has invigorated Bitcoin backers convinced this boost in value makes Bitcoin a more credible currency, that it is a sign of the cryptocurrency’s strength. Yet the wild swings, both up and down, in the value of Bitcoin do not make it a more plausible substitute currency; they make it a speculative asset, a get-rich-quick scheme.

Is Bitcoin the currency of the future? No. There are two big problems with bitcoin as a currency: its value is unstable and its transaction processing is too slow.

The most important feature of a currency is that it be a stable store of value. This credo, ably explained by Steve Forbes here (among many places), is vital for a developing country economy to attract the investment it needs. Even in developed countries, as John Tamny explained here on Forbes.com, a stable currency value is the key to investment because those who invest are expecting a stream of future earnings to earn back their investment plus some profit. Instability in currency values mean that an investor cannot accurately predict the value of those future earnings. This uncertainty makes investments less valuable; thus, less investment happens.

People for once should stop with putting a label on Bitcoin saying it is this or that, it's pointless. Bitcoin is whatever you want it to be - it all depends on how you use it. I personally use Bitcoin mostly as an asset tool, but there are enough people that use Bitcoin as currency tool. How can anyone then say that Bitcoin isn't a currency? Mind your own business...